Business News in Brief

In this Nov. 12, 2017, photo, Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group, speaks at the media center at the conclusion of the "Singles' Day" global online shopping festival in Shanghai. Jack Ma, who founded e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and helped to launch China's online retailing boom, announced Monday, Sept. 10, 2018 that he will step down as the company's chairman next September. In a letter released by Alibaba, Ma said he will be succeeded by CEO Daniel Zhang. Ma handed over the CEO's post to Zhang in 2013 as part of what he said was a succession process developed over a decade. (Chinatopix via AP)
In this Nov. 12, 2017, photo, Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group, speaks at the media center at the conclusion of the "Singles' Day" global online shopping festival in Shanghai. Jack Ma, who founded e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and helped to launch China's online retailing boom, announced Monday, Sept. 10, 2018 that he will step down as the company's chairman next September. In a letter released by Alibaba, Ma said he will be succeeded by CEO Daniel Zhang. Ma handed over the CEO's post to Zhang in 2013 as part of what he said was a succession process developed over a decade. (Chinatopix via AP)

D.C. meeting about lab-grown meet set

The nation's two food inspection agencies have teamed up to take on policy issues that stem from production of livestock and poultry muscle-cell-based meat products.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a joint statement released Monday that they will hold a public meeting next month to discuss "the use of cell culture technology to develop products derived from livestock and poultry."

The meeting is an opportunity for the agricultural industry and consumers to assist as a regulatory framework for these new products is developed, Perdue said. "As technology advances, we must consider how to inspect and regulate to ensure food safety, regardless of the production method."

The meeting, in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 23, comes a month after an appeal by producers to the White House to consider shared regulatory responsibilities by the USDA and FDA for cell-based products.

The public can comment before the meeting at regulations.gov.

-- Nathan Owens

U.S. consumer debt up $16.6B in July

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve reported Monday that consumer debt rose by a seasonally adjusted $16.6 billion in July, up sharply from a gain of $8.5 billion in June.

The category that includes credit cards rose by $1.3 billion after shrinking by $1.2 billion in June. The category that covers auto and student loans surged by $15.4 billion after an increase of $9.6 billion in June. It was the largest gain since an increase of $17.9 billion in November.

Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity in the United States. After a slow start this year, consumer activity accelerated sharply this spring. That helped push overall economic growth up to a solid annual rate of 4.2 percent in the April-June quarter, almost double the 2.2 percent GDP gain in the first quarter.

President Donald Trump is forecasting even stronger gains in growth going forward, but private analysts believe the spring quarter figure was boosted by some temporary factors. Those included a rush to ship U.S. exports of products such as soybeans before retaliatory tariffs were imposed by China and other countries reacting to penalty tariffs levied by the Trump administration.

Many analysts believe growth for the second half of this year will come in at a still solid annual rate of 3 percent. If that forecast proves accurate, it would give the country the strongest full-year GDP growth in more than a decade.

The July increase pushed consumer borrowing up to a record of $3.92 trillion compared with $3.75 trillion in July 2017.

The Fed's monthly credit report does not include mortgages or any other loans secured by real estate such as home equity loans.

-- The Associated Press

Alibaba founder to step down from post

BEIJING -- Jack Ma, who founded e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and helped launch China's online retailing boom, announced Monday that he will step down as the company's chairman next September.

In a letter released by Alibaba, Ma said he will be succeeded by Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang, an 11-year veteran of the company.

Ma, a former English teacher, founded Alibaba in 1999 in an apartment in the eastern city of Hangzhou to connect Chinese exporters with foreign retailers. It expanded into consumer retailing, becoming the world's biggest e-commerce company by total value of goods sold, as well as online finance, cloud computing and other services.

Ma, who turned 54 on Monday, became one of China's most famous entrepreneurs and one of the world's richest. The Hurun Report, which follows China's wealthy, estimates his net worth at $37 billion.

Alibaba's $25 billion initial public stock offering on Wall Street in 2014 is the biggest to date by a Chinese company.

Alibaba said Ma will remain a member of the Alibaba Partnership, a group of 36 people with the right to nominate a majority of its board of directors. That arrangement limits shareholder control, but Ma has defended it as a way to keep Alibaba focused on long-term development.

-- The Associated Press

Small-dollar loans in U.S. Bank's plans

U.S. Bank will offer small-dollar loans to its depositors, aiming to provide cash when customers get in short-term binds.

The product, called Simple Loan, puts the nation's fifth-largest bank in more direct competition with payday lenders and other financial firms that offer a few hundred dollars for short terms and often at high interest rates.

Consumer advocacy groups have long pushed banks to offer small-dollar loans that compete with credit cards and other forms of short-term lending that can be expensive and, in cases where lenders hide fees and requirements, detrimental to borrowers.

U.S. Bank, the bank unit of Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, is the first of the nation's large banks to bring such a loan to market. Executives spent recent weeks demonstrating the product to regulators.

The loans are for $100 to $1,000 and have to be paid back in three payments over three months.

The bank will charge $12 for every $100 borrowed if borrowers repay the loans via autopay from their U.S. Bank savings or checking accounts. The charge will be $15 for every $100 borrowed if a customer repays the loan manually, such as by writing a check and sending it in. For example, a person who borrows $300 will wind up paying $336 over three months if the repayment amount is deducted automatically from a U.S. Bank account.

-- Tribune News Service

Japan: End commercial whaling ban

FLORIANOPOLIS, Brazil -- Japan proposed an end to a decades-old ban on commercial whaling at an international conference Monday, arguing that there is no longer a scientific reason for what was supposed to be a temporary measure.

But the proposal faces stiff opposition from countries that argue that many whale populations are still vulnerable or, even more broadly, that the killing of whales is increasingly seen as unacceptable. Japan currently kills whales under a provision that allows hunting for research purposes.

It's not clear when the vote will happen; the International Whaling Commission meeting lasts until Friday. It's also possible that the Japanese could pull back the proposal -- or attempt to negotiate the inclusion of parts of it in other proposals.

Japan has hunted whales for centuries as a cheaper alternative source of protein to meat. Its catch has fallen in recent years in part because of declining domestic demand for whale meat and challenges to its hunt.

Its quota is now 333, about a third the number it used to kill before the International Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that its program wasn't scientific in nature. It revised the program and resumed the hunt in 2016.

-- The Associated Press

Business on 09/11/2018

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